


Ghosts of Edge

by damedanbo



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post Advent Children, eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 22:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17817086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damedanbo/pseuds/damedanbo
Summary: A year passed, all at once, and everyone moved on. Everyone but Cloud Strife. He still struggles with his memories of the attempted reunion--until he passes his anxieties off to Reno. Now Reno has a remnant problem, one that he needs to solve before anyone else finds out.





	Ghosts of Edge

Now and then, Cloud still saw them.

Usually in dreams, somewhere between REM and deep sleep, he’d hit pockets of memories- battles, and old conversations, a little dim, a little grainy, a little distorted. Past events, three years ago, one year ago. He didn’t always remember the dreams, not when they were just glimpses, shadows at the edges of his vision, a flicker of black and grey on the periphery, sometimes a flash of bright, mako green.

But once in awhile a dream would remain, stick around for a day or so, fogging up his brain and leaving him edgy, a little wary, a little unsure what he’d see if he looked over his shoulder.

No one else remembered like this. No one else still worried about them.

Worse was the waking dreams, the day when he’d meet one of them in the flesh, but not quite!- a passerby, eyes a little too green, a glint of silver in the sun, sometimes just a black leather jacket or the sound of a pair of boots on the pavement- real normal things, real everyday things, nothing he should have taken notice of- but they’d just set him off, leave him with gritted teeth and staring eyes, and clenched fists, nails digging into his palms.

He didn’t tell anyone about it. He had tried, once, to explain to Tifa the fear, the nightmares, the daytime paranoia. She was as understanding as ever, but that didn’t mean that she understood. Her rallying of the gang didn’t help matters for him, that time- being surrounded by Avalanche members who believed this paranoid delusions of leftover remnants to be real was probably the last thing he’d needed, but he couldn’t tell her  _ that. _

So he kept it to himself, buried the fear and anxiety, the post-traumatic near-constant agonizing worry, and clammed up again. Tifa noticed, and pried, but his excuses kept her at bay.

Anyway.

A year came and went pretty fast, once you looked back at it. No one really talked about what had happened in Edge a year before; they rebuilt quietly, efficiently, buildings rising out of rubble like staggering zombies, righting themselves at the edges of their graves. And after a year, people were relaxing again. Music played at night, from somewhere twinkling and far away, people stayed out late, and kids ran around the city in packs, playing and laughing and forgetting.

A whole year, give or take a little.

Marlene and Denzel were growing up fast under their care. Their birthdays were a couple of weeks apart, but the two of them had made the very adult decision to have a joint birthday party. As expected, everyone was invited. Turks included, though whether that was out of some kind of abstract camaraderie or sheer politeness remained to be seen. Tseng graciously declined his invitation, citing his and Elena’s business trip that weekend. (As such, she was also unable to come.) That left Reno and Rude to attend what Reno could only hope would be the drinking kind of party.

Ask and ye shall receive.

The party began at around six, with an influx of many grungy, sticky children underfoot, as well as the arrival of the Turks and Avalanche. No one wanted to miss a chance to catch up; even Vincent Valentine, the absolute last person to be found at a children’s birthday party, was there. Tifa strapped a paper party hat onto his head the second he sat down and Yuffie blew a noisemaker in his ear. The guy looked ready to die.

Reno surveyed Seventh Heaven as he and Rude entered, taking in the neon bright party decor of streamers and dangling honeycomb balls. Someone had tacked up a pin the tail on the chocobo game at the other end of the bar. Children scampered about underfoot, chasing each other and batting at low-hanging decorations in delight. 

The bar was closed for the party tonight, but it was almost as busy as any other night. Reno squeezed his way past Barret Wallace to get to the bartop and hopped up onto a stool.

“Are you serving tonight?” he asked Tifa cheerfully. She turned her head to smile at him and grabbed a beer from under the counter, prying the cap off before setting it on the shiny bartop.

“Of course I am,” she said. “It is a party! Hey, Rude.”

The other Turk nodded at her, keeping his sunglasses on despite the somewhat dim lighting in the bar. He took the beer Tifa offered him and clinked it against Reno’s, and then they both drank.

“How’s work?” Tifa asked, half-shouting over the kid’s music and the din of many voices as she made her way around to their side of the bar. Reno “hm”d and Rude shrugged.

“It’s alright. Getting there.”

“Kidnapped anyone good recently?” Cid Highwind joked loudly over his shoulder at them, a little dryly. Reno grinned, lowered and shook his head.

“Nope, no kidnappings.”

“We’re staying out of trouble,” Rude said seriously. Tifa and Reno laughed, and then she politely pulled the redhead away to talk to him.

“Reno, can you do me a favor?”

He had a bad feeling about this immediately. “Hey, come on, I can’t be running favors for eco-terrorists-”

“It’s nothing big. I just need someone to talk to Cloud.”

Cloud? Reno looked around, spotting the blond alone at a booth in the corner. “What’s his deal?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem- he won’t talk to me. I’m worried.” She looked it. “Can you just try to chat with him? Even if you can’t get anything out of him- if he’ll just act like himself again…”

_ I thought he  _ was  _ acting like himself,  _ Reno almost joked, but he swallowed the comment and gave her a grin. “Of course. You can count on me.”

“Don’t get cocky. Vincent and Barret have already failed.”

How very reassuring of her. Reno sighed as Tifa stepped away to talk to Rude again. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and strolled over to the corner of the bar, plopping into the booth seat across from Cloud.

“Hey there, Spikey,” he started. Cloud didn’t quite look up from the tabletop. And he’d been so sure a nickname would at least drag a scowl out of the guy! “Alright, not in the talking mood, that’s fine. I’ll talk for both of us. You know I will, yo.”

Cloud’s mouth sort of twitched.

“Hey, I saw that. I know you’re in there.”

“What do you want, Reno.”

“Hey, I don’t want anything. Tifa asked me to chat you up, so here I am.” He clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back into the makeshift rest, one leg over the other under the booth. “So, what’s got you down?”

“Nothing. It’s not important.”

“Wow. And here I thought Cloud Strife wouldn’t miss his kids’ birthday party for anything less than “mega important.””

Cloud lifted his head, leveling his sky-blue gaze at the Turk. He opened his mouth and shut it again. “It’s… not something I can tell the others.”

Concerning, to say the least. “Did something happen?”

“Kind of- no, not really. Nothing.”

He hadn’t seen Cloud so cagey in a long time. He knew the guy suffered a lot- depression, PTSD, that kind of stuff wasn’t easy to deal with- but this kind of attitude was right up there with…

Well, it was starting to feel a little like a year ago.

Reno started at him, silent, thinking, but listening. Working with captives had taught him a few things: if someone only partially answered your question, wait. The silence will prompt them to say more on their own, in a way that prying won’t.

“I saw him,” Cloud murmured. Reno frowned, raised an eyebrow.

“Saw who?”

Cloud paused again. Reno almost regretted the question; he might have answered on his own without a prompt, but now-

“Reno. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”

“Oh, shit, okay.”

Cloud inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. “I saw a remnant. Earlier today.”

Reno’s knee hit the table and it jumped, clattering loudly on the floor. The chatter of conversations in the bar halted as everyone turned to glance at him, then resumed. Reno stared at Cloud, hands dropped to the tabletop, mouth hanging slightly open.

“You- you saw-?!”

“You can’t tell anyone, because it’s not true.”

“What?! So you’ve just gone full-blown crazy now, or what?”

“Look, I… I don’t know what it is. I just keep seeing them, everywhere I go- it was getting a lot better for a while, but then today… I swear, I saw his eyes.”

Okay. So either Cloud was nuts, or those monsters had dragged themselves back from the grave. “So which is it? Did you really see one, or not?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I can’t tell anyone.”

“Because..?”

“They’ll panic. All of Edge would panic.”

“You- you have to do something, Strife!” Reno lowered his voice to a whisper. “If Kadaj is back, you’re the only one who can take him out! Why aren’t you-”

“We don’t know if it’s real or not,” Cloud reminded him.

“...Right,” Reno murmured. His heart was pounding, even as he sat still and silent at the booth.

“You could help me,” Cloud said after a long moment of silence. “You can be my eyes. I can’t tell what’s real anymore- if I’m seeing them for real, or if I’m just imagining it. I’m not sleeping.”

“No kidding,” Reno said, glancing at his eye bags.

“But you- you’re not a part of this. You wouldn’t be affected- you could tell me if it’s real or not.”

“And no one else can do it because…”

“No one else has the presence of mind to doubt me. To question what I’m seeing. And the other Turks- they’ll act too hastily. It’s gotta be you.”

“We’re bringing out the cake!” Tifa called from the other end of the room, and everyone cheered. Cloud moved to stand as the birthday song started up.

“Can I think about it?” Reno asked.

“What’s there to think about? Do you want to help me or not?”

Reno remained sitting, staring at the wall behind where Cloud had been seated. Of course he wanted to help, it was just… Like, fuck, what if those freaks were back? Walking around in broad daylight, mingling with society- what if one of them had slipped through the cracks and stuck around in Edge? What was he supposed to do if he ran into one of them while he was alone? Go hand-to-hand with a remnant of Sephiroth? Reno didn’t have a horse in this race.

But here he was, running the track.

“Reno,” Rude said, having snuck up on him. “There’s cake.”

“Yeah,” Reno mumbled. “I gotta go.”

 

“Are you sure you can’t stay?” Tifa asked him at the door. “You haven’t even had any cake yet…”

She was trying to be nice. She  _ was  _ being nice- it was hard to think of them as anything other than enemies still, sometimes- Avalanche and good ol’ Shin-Ra, good and evil, light and dark- but she was being genuinely kind to him. Offering him triple chocolate birthday cake.

God. Cloud did not fucking deserve her.

“Yeah, I... ‘ve got somewhere to be. Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, fiddling with his ponytail, thumb and forefinger picking at the elastic. Tifa smiled a little too sympathetically, like, “sorry that talking to Cloud ruined your day, have a nice night!” 

He didn’t quite  _ run  _ from Seventh Heaven after that, but he did walk pretty quickly for the next couple blocks, until he turned a corner- then settled into a more comfortable pace, a little slower. He patted his pockets to find his cigarettes, whipped the pack out with a flair and popped it open. 

Empty. No, not quite, there was a note.

 

_ Hey, future Reno _

_ Buy smokes. _

_ You’re welcome, _

_ Past Reno _

 

That motherfucker. He crumpled the note in his hand, then the empty pack, and hucked both into the street. Hands stuffed into his jacket pockets, face set in a scowl, he picked up the pace again, heading across the street towards a 24-hr convenience store he’d noticed the last time he’d been this way. The sign was lit up in all blue and red.

24 HOUR STORE! ALWAYS OPEN!

Storming through the front door, and hoping he looked as grouchy as he felt, Reno stomped up to the counter- had there been another customer waiting, he might have had to shove them out of the way to get to the front. Luckily, the place was entirely devoid of life, save for the old hot dogs rolling down the grill, and the oscillating fan blowing cool, dusty air across the store.

Reno paused at the counter, looking around a bit more. There really was no one here. There weren’t even any security cameras that he could see- if he wanted to, he could just step behind the counter and take a pack of Gaia’s Golds and be on his way, without the hassle of waiting for a cranky shopkeep.

Sigh. No, he wasn’t going to do that. 

“Hello?” he called, leaning over the counter to catch a glimpse of the dingy carpeting on the other side of the raised platform. “Yo, anyone here? I just wanna buy some-”

A person stepped around the corner, and Reno froze. His heart stopped. His stomach flopped. Everything was on pause, and going way too fast at the same time. 

There wasn’t even anything particularly remnant-y about the guy, nothing that should have set Reno off- but he remembered the face well: bored, non-emotive. Hair worn long and silky around his shoulders- dyed a flat black now, but probably untrimmed; hard to tell with it pulled up in a ponytail. Green eyes- not as green as they used to be, no, something had changed there; pale skin, a little dull now, but smooth like marble, probably just as cold- Reno took it in as fast as he could, every detail, everything that had changed in a year. 

“You,” Reno said, very softly. The slender, wispy remnant started back at him, completely disinterested, looking entirely too human in his black polo shirt and dark, fitted jeans.

Time began to flow again; movement resumed. Reno waited and waited for a glimmer of something in the remnant’s eyes- recognition, surprise!, fear, maybe? 

Nothing.

“What can I get for you?” the monster asked, sounding very bored and very fake-polite.

“It- it’s you!” Reno tried again, slamming his hands on the counter. “How the hell did you survive?”

A pause. The Sephiroth look-alike raised an eyebrow, then put it back down.

“I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” the remnant said, sounding no more guarded than before. Like he was serious.

Like he really wasn’t a remnant.

Like maybe Cloud’s little condition was contagious, and talking to him had planted ideas in his head.

_ Bullshit! _

They both moved at the same time- Reno lunged over the counter to grab him, and the remnant grabbed a bat from underneath it. He swung for Reno’s head immediately, so the redhead felt no remorse in kicking him square in the spleen, making him stumble back a couple of steps. He wished he had his electro-mag rod, but he and Rude had gone to the party unarmed- stupid, stupid!- and yet, the remnant had failed to block him. It was like the guy was weaker, somehow. Slower. Just overall less skilled.

It was totally possible that he  _ was  _ just a convenience store clerk.

The remnant swung for him again and Reno met him halfway, yanking the bat out of his hands and turning it on its master. He was still trying to remember the middle brother’s face completely. It  _ had  _ been a full year. The remnant lunged forward, and Reno stepped up, swung, and hit him in the abdomen again, taking him to his knees. Reno grinned, victorious.

“Right, so here’s how this is going to go down,” Reno said, thinking it up on the spot. “First of all- I’m taking these.” He reached over and grabbed a pack of Gaia Golds from its slot behind the counter and stuffed them in his pocket, bat slung over his right shoulder. “You’re going to get up, nice and slow, understand? Do-you-understand?” Again, slower. The remnant glared up at him from behind his black bangs. “We’re going to walk down to Seventh Heaven, and you’re going to turn yourself in.”

“I’m not hurting anyone,” the middle brother said, voice strained. Yazoo. Reno finally remembered his name. 

“I think you’ve hurt enough people in the past to justify this.”

“How am I supposed to atone for that?” His voice was thick with pain, eyes narrow and dark. Reno gaped at him slightly. He’d said something similar, once- no. Not the time to make comparisons between himself and monsters. He sucked in a dry laugh.

“Guess you’re just gonna have to suck it up and die, then. Get up.”

Yazoo stood slowly. The two of them maintained perfect eye contact as he straightened up, glaring at each other. Reno couldn’t help but sneer a bit. All that suffering Cloud had gone through, and he’d caught the monster within ten minutes.

Reno backed up, out from behind the counter, and Yazoo followed. It was only once they were out in the front of the store that the remnant made his move, which Reno had been expecting. He just hadn’t anticipated such a low blow. Yazoo’s boot collided with his groin, hard, and Reno dropped the bat, falling to his knees. The weapon clanged to the linoleum floor and stayed there. 

It took Reno a few seconds to regain his composure and resume breathing. He staggered back to his feet and took off out the door, after the remnant. He skidded to a halt in front of the convenience store, looking left, then right.

No sign of him. It was like he’d just disappeared.

He really needed a smoke now.

 

He walked back towards Seventh Heaven, puffing on his cigarette. Rude stood outside the bar, as if he were waiting for him.

“Did you come back for cake,” Rude asked. 

“Yeah, sorta.” Reno took a good, long drag from the cigarette before putting it out, stomping it under his shoe.

“Something happen?”

Reno opened his mouth, then paused. Letting a surviving remnant slip away so carelessly… That was just. Negligent. Cloud would kill him. These were the kind of mistakes that got people killed.

Better to deal with the problem himself. No one else had to know.

“Not a damn thing,” Reno said, lighting up again.

 

He canvassed the area that night, returning to the convenience store twice. The same hot dogs were still on the grill the third time around, but a new cashier had taken Yazoo’s place.

First things first, he learned that the remnant was going by Yuusa. Clever. Second, his address was listed a couple miles away- totally abandoned, untouched for months. And third, he usually worked the night shift, but had swapped with Chad for the day. “But, uh, I don’t like, know him very well,” Chad said, as Reno turned and left the store.

He wandered for most of the night, checking alleys and dumpsters, peeking into dark buildings for signs of life. He came up empty handed. 

Well, if the remnant was smart, he’d be out of town by now. Disappear without a trace, go live out in the sticks somewhere with a couple of goats, survive off the land. That actually sounded kind of nice.

Reno headed home late, and let himself into the apartment. It had been bright when he’d left it in the morning,  but now not even the starlight made it through his windows. Depressing.

He made his way in the dark to his bedroom and took his suit off, falling undressed onto the bed. After all that, to come up with nothing… It sucked. No one else knew it, but it sucked. He sighed, reaching in the dark for the top sheet, and dragged it halfheartedly over himself to sleep. At least he couldn’t fuck up his dreams.

Reno sighed, and tried to sleep. He could only see eyes, too bright, with thin black cuts through the irises.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, hello! This is a really self indulgent fic I started before I quit my job at the convenience store... I don't know how far I can actually go with it, but the idea is there.


End file.
